York County Officials Talk Trash Options

January 24, 1991|By PATRICK LEE PLAISANCE Staff Writer

YORK — Rob Messick soon may have to change the way he handles his household trash every week.

Like many other York County residents, the Seaford Road resident makes a short trip each week to the county landfill off Goodwin Neck Road to toss his plastic bags of garbage into the sea of refuse constantly being trampled by a huge tractor and picked through by seagulls.

But because of state recycling laws and the expected costs of handling garbage when the landfill closes in July 1992, county officials are talking about how residents may start paying for curbside pickup of trash and recyclables. County staff members met with the Board of Supervisors Wednesday night to discuss changes that may be in store in the next few years.

After the landfill closes, a regional authority plans to manage the trash of all Peninsula and most Middle Peninsula residents.

Martin Fisher, the county's environmental services director, said 6,000 residents are throwing their trash in the landfill each month, a rate of about 55 tons per day. But he and others said the day will come when the county may have to start its own curbside collection and couple it with a program to pick up recyclables as well.

Under state requirements, the county must recycle at least 10 percent of its garbage by the end of this year and 25 percent by the end of 1995.

"In order to reach that 25 percent, we can't do it unless we have some kind of curbside program," said County Administrator Daniel Stuck.

Three options were discussed:

* The county could spend $2 million to start its own curbside service.

* Hauling companies could collect trash and recyclables in different areas of the county, and customers would be billed by them for the service, much like the service offered now in some neighborhoods.

* The county could sign a contract with one or more companies and then pay for the service with real estate tax revenue.

Under the last option, Stuck estimated the average household cost to collect garbage would decrease as much as $8 per month from the amount most pay private haulers.

But Stuck also has warned that the days of relatively cheap trash management may be numbered.

He has warned that new state recycling rules and the closing of the landfill may force the county's cost of handling garbage to skyrocket to $3 million to $4 million a year - about 10 times the annual $300,000 to $400,000 now being spent.

County workers have reached the last remaining section of the landfill and expect that to be filled by June.

As a result, Fisher said he has asked the state for permission to start piling trash 6 feet above ground level.